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64 teacher jun e/july 2011
News
In brief
Australia’s greenest teacher
Sandi Burt of Bees Creek Primary School
south of Darwin is the national winner
of the 2011 Green Teacher Awards. Burt
won for her unique recycling project.
Finalists were: Raquel Spratt from Blake-
hurst High School in Sydney’s south; Jan
Hare from Epping Views Primary School
in Melbourne’s north; Tracey Sheppard
from Queensland Independent College
on Queensland’s Gold Coast; and Melita
Harmer from Ellenbrook Secondary Col-
lege on the fringe of Perth’s northern sub-
urbs. The Green Teacher Awards are held
by Clean Up Australia with sponsorship
support from Sanyo Oceania.
NAPlAN
Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across the
nation sat the National Assessment Pro-
gram – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
tests in May. According to Australian Cur-
riculum , Assessment and Reporting Author-
ity Chairman Professor Barry McGaw,
NAPLAN testing is a vital tool to under-
stand how Australian students are perform -
ing. ‘ Systematic improvement is best sup-
ported by careful measu rement. NAPLAN
provides that measu rement and a perspec-
tive broader than that available within an
individual school,’ Professor McGaw said.
NAPLAN is not a test students can pre-
pare for, because it is not a test of content ,
McGaw added, because it tests skills in lit-
eracy and nu meracy that are developed over
time through the school curriculum.
2010 Year 5 numeracy sample question
Budget 2011
Prime Minister Julia Gillard returned to edu-
cation policy, her happy hunting grou nd , to
announce ‘pay bonuses for around 25,000 of
our best teachers,’ days before her Treasurer
Wayne Swan in May delivered his fourth
Commonwealth Budget. The aim would
appear to be to shift attention away from
the two big issues facing the Commonwealth
government – the carbon tax and the deficit.
What does the Budget mean for the edu-
cation sector?
On the upside, the Budget includes
$425 million over the next four years for
‘pay bonuses for around 25,000 of our best
teachers,’ to fund bonus payments for the
top 10 per cent of teachers up to 10 per cent
of their salary as a one-off bonus based on
their performance. (See inset, right.)
The Budget also includes $558 million
to deliver tailored, quality training places
through the National Workforce Devel-
opment Fund and ‘ambitious’ reform of
vocational education and traini ng, with
$1.75 billion over five years, from 2012-13,
on offer to the states and territories through
national partnerships.
In adult education , the Budget provides
$143 million to expand the Language Lit-
eracy and Nume racy Program to assist
an additional 30,000 job seekers gain the
foundation skills necessa ry to participate in
training and employment.
On the downside, the Budget reduces
funding to the Digital Education Revolution
(DER) by $132.5 million over four years to
$20 million per year. It’s understood that
savings will be redirected to establishing a
digital strategy for teachers.
According to Budget papers , the Com-
monwealth government will still be able to
fund its DER program to ensure a one-to-
one ratio of computers to students in Years
9to12bytheendofthisyear.
The Budget also postpones the rollout
of the Commonwealth government trades
training centres program to save $102.8 mil-
lion over the next four years, and axes the
$80 million Vocational Education Broad-
STeVe holDeN looks at what the budget means for the
education sector.